Noted Scholar Damian Skinner to Give Lecture on Contemporary Jewelry

Part of the Art Jewelry Forum Speakers Tour, the discussion will take place September 23 in CBS Auditorium

September 3, 2013

What makes contemporary jewelry unique? Join noted scholar Damian Skinner on September 23 for an exciting conversation on the field of contemporary jewelry today and its remarkable future. The discussion, part of the Art Jewelry Forum Speakers Tour marking the publication of his AJF book Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective, will be presented at 2:30 p.m. in CBS Auditorium in Hamilton Hall (320 South Broad Street) and is free and open to the public.

What are the singular characteristics that distinguish these objects and practices from other forms of visual arts? One way to answer this is to consider the spaces in which contemporary jewelry circulates: it inhabits not only the walls and plinths of museums, but also the private spaces of collectors’ drawers and the body as it moves through the public spaces of the street. Much of the energy in discussions about contemporary jewelry comes from having to take these different contexts into account.

In his talk, Skinner will demonstrate that contemporary jewelry is never just an object that can be divorced from the spaces in which it is encountered and the sites of production where all those involved in contemporary jewelry (makers, dealers, collectors, educators, writers, curators, users and so on) manufacture the various forms of evidence that together make up the field.

Damian Skinner is an art historian and curator of Applied Art and Design at the Auckland Museum in New Zealand. He is the editor of Contemporary Jewelry In Perspective (Lark Books, 2013) and former editor of Art Jewelry Forum. He was a Newton International Fellow at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, and his books include Cone Ten Down: Studio Pottery in New Zealand, 1945-1980; Alan Preston: Between Tides; Kobi Bosshard: Goldsmith; Pocket Guide to New Zealand Jewelry; and Place and Adornment: A History of Contemporary Jewellery in Australasia.